BLACK FRIDAY SHOPPING - 2010

alrighty. i'm just now getting around to writing the blog about my black friday experience. i had every intention of writing it on friday, but it just didn't work out.

so this year my team was very small. however, we were extremely mobile! the team consisted of two people, my sister in law, c, and me, most of the time and a third one, papa bill, came in after 5 a.m.

my sister-in-law, to be called c from now on, usually stays the night with me on thanksgiving night so we can get up bright and early on friday. she arrived at my house about 9:30 p.m. we looked through all the ads and made our lists. i had coupons printed and organized. i knew we were going to at least start out at 4 a.m. at target. however, as we started talking, we contemplated on going out at earlier to hit toys-r-us and target.

okay for those of you who say, "really, are there such great deals out there that you need to go out then?" i would say, "no, not really, but that's not the only reason we go out." so get over that so you can just go along for the ride!

we decided to just go. it was 11 p.m. and we decided to just head to toys-r-us. we had no idea what else we were going to do, but we decided we would hit toys-r-us and then walmart at least. this is us, me and c, before we left happy and excited!

we got to toys-r-us and even though it has been opened for more than an hour there was still a line wrapped around the building. craziness! i asked a lady in the parking lot who was coming out how it was in there. she said it was crazy and that they were only letting in 50 people at a time. well... it was cold that night and we didn't want to stand in that line so we decided to go across the street to walmart.

walmart was crazy too. i don't even think i remembered my walkie talkies in this store. first we ran to find the coffeepots we wanted. they were all gone. next we went back to the kid's clothing. i grabbed several pairs of winter pajamas for my kids and some for presents. you would have thought these pajamas were spun from gold thread. people were ravaging them. you would just see pairs being thrown from one shelf to another. i grabbed what i could and got out of there. there were lines already for the electronics stuff, but luckily we were not in need of those. i grabbed some legos for my daughter for her birthday - the last pink tub. c got some stuff she wanted. she found some pans she thought about getting but then decided against it. we proceeded to the line. this is what it looked like from our view.

crazy no???

after walmart, we decided to head to kohls. i thought k0hls opened at midnight. when we arrived, i realized i was wrong. kolhs opens at 3 a.m. so we have to find something to do for a couple of hours until target opens. we decide to go across the street to another walmart. beat waiting in line outside the target for 3 hours. we went into walmart and found our coffeepots! this walmart was a ghost town compared to the other walmart. there was hardly anyone there. in the other walmart there were items wrapped in plastic in the middle of aisles that people were ripping into. i think some of these things were supposed to wait to go "on sale" until 5 a.m. people were not waiting. however, at this walmart we noticed many of the things were still wrapped in plastic. we went right up to the cashier with no one else in line before us.

it was around 1:20 a.m. i have a picture to prove it. :)

when we were finished, we still had over two hours to go before target opened. you might be asking here since it was now 2 a.m. if we were tired, and we were not. c had had two coffees by now, but she was still going strong.

we decided to head to where else, walgreens. we spent about a little time there getting all the black friday deals they had going. we were going to go to a cvs but we couldn't find one on the way back to target that was open 24 hours.

we drove back by toys-r-us and the line outside was gone. we decided to try it out again. there were parking spots, so this seemed like it was a good time. we went inside and shopped around for a bit. c found a thomas the train departure station and i found a lego radio/alarm clock for $10. thought my son would love this, so we get our purchases and look for the line. it's wrapped halfway around the store, but not only that it's weaving in and out of aisles! oh well, we had an hour and a half to kill before target opened so we hopped in line. we got to know our fellow shoppers a little bit. the lady in front of us took a picture for us. we are still smiles.

i texted my sister, j and papa bill to let them know we were in toys-r-us and that we had been up all night. we shopped as our line moved along. i found a great baby boy outfit on the clearance rack. this was the only time i got a little foggy. it was very warm in the store and just standing there in line moving a couple of spots every couple of minutes was not helping. some people were having food brought into them from mcdonalds, and others were just grabbing it off the shelf to eat. finally a little over an hour later we get to the end of the line. i see my friend, beth, and the end of the line. she tells me she's been there for two and half hours. she had some "5 a.m. sale items" that she didn't realize were 5 a.m. sale items and she either had to put them back or wait in line until 5 a.m. to purchase those items. OY! this must be why we saw sacks of stuff just laying around while we were in line. beth checked for the items were were purchasing in the 5 a.m. ad they had and we didn't see our items. when it was our turn to go to the cashier, i looked at a sale ad they had sitting on the shelf. guess what, my lego clock was a 5 a.m. item. i had the newborn outfit i was going to get and a box of crayons that was free with any purchase, but i couldn't get the clock! i stood in line in the hot toys-r-us store for over an hour to get a newborn outfit that i could have gotten any other time.

it's a little after 4 a.m. and target has finally opened. i don't think target was as crazy as walmart, the first walmart. it was a little crazy getting the last 750 thread count sheets, but i think we got the rest of the things on our list that we wanted to get. more pjs, fleece hoodies, leapfrog games, area carpets, and ladies pj pants.

we got into line. we decided we needed a little pick me up in target, so c stayed in line while i went to starbucks.

there were almost as many people in line at starbucks as there was in the checkout lines. in fact by the time i had gotten our tall mocha and caramel frappachino, c had already checked out.

it was after 5 a.m. by now and sams was having their free breakfast. papa bill had called me to let me know he was out and he met us at sams. the set up this year was not like the other years they have had it, but it still provided us with some energy we needed to go on. papa bill took the picture of us getting the hot sausage biscuits we had to stand in line for.

while were eating our breakfast, papa bill told me he had got my text message. he had heard his phone beep alerting him that he had gotten a text message - at 3 a.m.! oh no! i asked him if it was by his bed and he said no. he had to get up to check it. i felt horrible. i didn't even think that he would hear it and have to get out of bed to check it. i figured he would just read it when he got up at 4:30 a.m. he just laughed it off though. he was very sweet about it. of course, i already knew this about him because he actually woke up at 4 a.m. to take 6 international students up to the mall so they could black friday shop!

after we ate our free breakfast at sams, it was around 6 a.m and we headed to the mall. it seems like it's 12 p.m. it seems like we had just eaten lunch. at the mall, c headed to one store and papa bill and i headed to bath and body works. papa bill helped me out and purchased some things for me so i could use two coupons. i had one purchase, two wallflowers and a body spray. i had a coupon so i would get the body spray for free. papa bill had my other purchase, a pocket antibacterial holder and a full size lotion that i should get free with the coupon. i had to switch purchases with papa bill because he didn't think i would get the lotion and the antibacterial hold for only.54. with papa bill's help i got two full size items, a lotion and body spray, two wallflower refills, and a pocket antibactirial holder from bath and body works for about $11. thanks for your help papa bill.

we walked around to some other stores looking for some pans c had wanted, but didn't find any. finally c's feet were starting to give out and we headed to the food court to get more coffee and a coke.


we sat around and talked. i have to admit my feet were pretty sore at this point too. it hasn't been too crazy yet. walmart had been the craziest place. everywhere was crowded but no one was rude or mean. in fact many people were in good spirits and just laughing it off that we were all out there on that day to begin with.

we decided to hit mardels after the mall. papa bill had some other shopping to do at the mall and he had to pick up the international students at 10 a.m. so decided to stay at the mall. since we didn't find the pans c had wanted at the mall, we went back to the first walmart to get the pans she had originally seen. there were plenty still left and it was a quick in and out purchase.

we spent some time at mardels. i had originally gone for the veggietale it's a meaningful life dvd. it was on sale for $8 and i had a $3 off coupon, but i found some cute t-shirts on sale for $1.99 and a few other little things.

after mardels, it was 10:30 a.m. c and i were done. we decided to get some sonic and head back to the house to eat and take a nap. that's what we did. c had to get back to home so we only took a two hour nap. i think we both zone on the way back to my in-laws.

we went to my in-law for thanksgiving. that's where the officer and my kids were. we had a great weekend with them and i'll have to write another post on that. it's been a wierd weekend though because after thursday night, being out literally all night shopping, i have lost my voice. it's been gone since friday night. hopefully i will get it back soon! :)

so if you ask was it worth it going out all night and shopping? did you find some great deals that made it worth it? it was worth it. c and i had a great time!!! something we will never forget. honestly the deals this year were ....ehhh, but it was a lot of fun. of course if you are someone who hates crowds, this is not the time for you to test your tolerance, but it's not as bad as you think. i did get out the walkie talkies in toys-r-us, but since it was just the two of us, we really didn't need them. i think we do need shirts though.

things i want to remember: walmart craziness at one store, but ghost town in the other. texting papa bill at 3 a.m. and then finding out he heard it, and had to get out of bed to read it. everyone around us sweating in toys-r-us but c finally feeling warm in her sweater and coat. trying to find other stores open until target opened. picking good lines in all the stores. papa bill not thinking my coupons would work in bath and body works. he's seen big bertha, yet he still doubts my couponing knowledge. when will he learn. oh yeah i did almost forget, my cousin, julie, texted me throughout the night too. she and her husband also shopped all night. she texted me throughout the night to give me updates on how they were doing.

thanks to the officer for watching the kids. thanks to c for going with me! thanks to papa bill for coming out too and for forgiving me for texting you at 3 a.m. for no good reason. thanks to the officer's family for letting me sleep in until 9:30 a.m. the past two mornings. i think i am almost caught up on my sleep! :)

that's it folks. we'll see you again this time next year, for next year's installment of black friday shopping!